1. A loss is a loss, and that's all that matters! OK, for me that is a bunch of crap. I have a life. I watch college basketball and follow the Illini for entertainment, and that was one heck of an entertaining game. Sure it would have been better if we had won, but it was still a great effort by the Illini and a fun game to watch.
2. Wow! Is tOSU long and tall or what! They are not a perfect team, but they have some great talent. They could be a very tough team in coming years if all those young guys stick around. They had a block party with 9 blocks to our zip. Yeah, that matters.
3. Let's start with the kid! JCL can really shoot from deep. He has a lot to improve on, but he is going to score a lot of points for the Illini if he puts the work in.
4. Finke was very effective in the second half, and that was against a very tall and athletic team. There was even a nice stretch in the game where we played Mav and Finke together. The center spot is not a strength of this team, but these two contributed in this game.
5. Kendrick didn't have a super game for him, but he kept us in the game in the first half. It was an interesting contrast between the size and length of tOSU and the quickness of Illinois, with Kendrick being a key factor.
6. Malcolm Hill struggled in the first half, in large part because of fouls, but he really came back in the second half and at the end of the game. Jaylon Tate contributed as well, with 5 assists and no turnovers.
7. We were outrebounded badly in the first half, but we actually outrebounded tOSU in the second half, which was a big reason the game was close. We also won the turnover battle handily.
8. Coach Groce seemed concerned about the foul discrepancy. To be honest, I thought the calls on both teams were mostly legit. Obviously there were lots of close calls, but I didn't see any particular bias by the refs.
9. Well, the key is to build on this one. We need to use this as something to learn from. We need this kind of effort in every game from here on out. We should catch MSU short-handed, so that could even the odds.
Go Illini!